A preesure sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus

ABSTRACT

A force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus, the force sensing structure comprises a substrate  1  which is divided into a strain-concentrated region  11  and a non strain-concentrated region  12 , and sensors  4  which are arranged at the central portion or the edge of the strain-concentrated region  11 , wherein the thickness of the substrate  1  at the position of the strain-concentrated region  11  is smaller than that of the non-strain-concentration region  12 , thus the strain-concentrated region  11  is proved to be sensitive-sensed and easy to cause enlarged deformation to produce detectable electrical signal when force applied to the surface of substrate  1 . The touch apparatus comprises at least one force sensing structure. The force detection structure is highly precise, sensitive to operate, lower cost, and it is suitable for the harsh environment especially with a higher requirement of dust control and security use which contributes to an extensive application scope of the force detection structure.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention belongs to the technical field of touch control and particularly relates to a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus.

With the drastic development of intelligent electronic products in recent years, touch screens and touch-sensitive buttons have been extensively used in a plurality of electronics and other relevant products. Thanks to its visual human machine-interface, easy operability and customized function, the touch screens and touch-sensitive buttons make these products closer to human habit and more multi-functional. Meanwhile the touch technique is required to be more functional and reliable to be applied in more and more devices and harsh circumstances. Now there are many kinds of methods to achieve the function of touch screens and touch buttons, such as capacitive, resistive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave touch screen and buttons. By detecting the variation of capacitor, resistor, infrared, surface acoustic wave before and after touching operation, the touch screens and touch buttons are able to identify the touch site. However, such touch devices have some limitations in functional reliability, force detection, touching input and cannot be used directly in some conductive substrate made of metal or other material.

To solve the above problem, force-sensitive facility of touch buttons and screen is widely used in many harsh environment. It is achieved by detecting strain of touch object to identify the touch site and force value. It has higher functional reliability, flexible input mode, better compatibility for elastic substrate and capability of force detection. However, due to the detecting strain should be larger than the minimum strain that can be detected by the sensor, the force touch screen and force-sensitive button cannot be used in high-strong and thick touch substrate situation which requires too much force to cause detectable strain.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above situations. It provides a better force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that can be used in thicker and stronger substrate product, so as to eliminate the limitations in products manufacturing and application.

The present prevent is to be achieved as follows: A force sensing structure comprises a substrate and force sensors, that are provided exactly on or adjoining to the strain-concentrated region, wherein the substrate includes strain-concentrated region and non-strain-concentrated region, and the thickness of the substrate at the position of the strain-concentration region is smaller than that of the non-strain-concentration region.

Preferably, the substrate can be integrated formed and made of any one of common-used materials, such as plastic, metal, wood and glass.

Preferably, the substrate is made of elastic or rigid material.

Preferably, the strain-concentrated portion includes at least one groove formed by deformation from the backside of the substrate and the strain-concentrated area of small thickness on the substrate located at the position corresponding to the groove.

Preferably, the groove group is formed by the multiple grooves at the inner portion and the edge portion of the strain-concentrated district, the groove group comprises a central groove that is located in the inner portion of the strain-concentration region and an edge groove that is located in the edge portion of the strain-concentration region, and the central groove is in a cross shape, an X shape, a circular shape, a ring shape, a radiation shape, or the shape of the Chinese character ‘mi’ connecting with or isolated from the edge groove of which shape can be chosen from fan, ring, circle, oval or polygon.

Preferably, the groove group comprises multiple grooves that are arranged uniformly or non-uniformly in a grid-shape distribution.

Preferably, two or more sensors are series-connected foamed within or adjacent to the strain-concentrated region, including at least one sensor is located at the central position of the strain-concentrated region which constitutes a bridge circuit with other sensors by means of series connection.

Preferably, the strain-concentrated area only comprises one sensor located exactly at the central position thereof.

Preferably, the sensors can be variable resistors, capacitors, electric-Inductance strain sensors, stress sensors or polymer strain sensors.

Preferably, The force sensing structure according to claim 1, wherein the force sensing structure further comprises sensor carrier layer that is attached closely to the backside surface of the substrate, and sensors are imposed between sensor carrier layer and the substrate, between sensor carrier layers or under the lower surface of sensor carrier layer within or adjacent to the range of strain-concentrated region at backside of the substrate.

Preferably, a touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 1 to 10; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claims 1 to 10.

It is therefore another object of the present invention to provide a touch device includes a touch button and/or a touch screen, wherein the touch button includes the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus and/or the touch screen includes at least one such device described above.

The embodiment of the present invention has provides some advantages compared to current techniques which are described as below.

1. Groove group is arranged on the surface of substrate which gathers strain force and leads to enlarged deformation when pressed. And it induces larger strain of sensor carrier layer and the strain can be detected by the sensor which is installed against groove group. Hence, the detected strain is not determined by the thickness of the whole substrate, but close relevance to the thickness of groove group. So the present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus which can be used in thicker substrate, and cuts down the cost, eliminate the limitation of substrate selection, makes the touch more sensitive.

2. The present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus capable of accepting various touching mode without restricted to finger touch (conductive touch), also including stylus touch, conductor touch or a gloved finger touch etc, and the precision cannot be influenced by interference of dielectric media.

3. The present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus wherein substrate is only required to have elastic deformation performance and can be produced by various types of elastic materials, including metal, glass or plastics, or is made of rigid materials with extremely high elasticity modulus. The substrate is flexible in material selection and wide in application range.

4. The present invention provides a method of force detecting which has expanded its application not only in force-sensitive touch screens and touch buttons, but also in products used for weighing and force measurement through calibration.

5. The present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus wherein grooves are formed in the back surface of the substrate and the front surface of the substrate is a complete interface without slots and seams, so the substrate is suitable for environment with higher requirements of security, dust control and so on.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an example of an electronic apparatus comprising the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the back surface of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that includes an annular groove with a cross structure in it according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 shows a schematic view of circuit of strain sensors in the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the back surface of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that includes a square groove with a cross structure in it;

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the back surface of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that includes an annular groove with a seven-bar structure in it according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the back surface of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that includes an annular groove with a circle structure in it;

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing the back surface of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that includes several grooves in the horizontal and vertical directions;

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the back surface of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that includes a double-annular groove with structure of connective bars;

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 provides a cross-sectional graph showing another embodiment of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Specifically, all the embodiments described herein shall be for explanation use only without proposing any restricting qualifications for the present invention.

Detail illustration will be provided based on specific embodiment of the present invention in following paragraphs. Please refer to FIG. 1-FIG. 3.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an example of an electronic apparatus comprising the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the back surface of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus that includes an annular groove with a cross structure in it according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus.

The preferred embodiment of the force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus comprises a substrate 1, a sensor carrier layer 2 in which the strain sensors 4 are integrated. The substrate 1 and sensor carrier layer 2 are combined together by liquid glue, solid glue, glue film, UV glue or formed by means of injection molding. The substrate 1 can be divided into two regions of which one is the strain-concentrated region 11 and the strain sensors 4 are arranged near the strain-concentration region 11 or within the range of that, and the other one is the non strain-concentrated region 12 of which the substrate thickness h2 is larger than that of the strain-concentrated region 11 wherein larger strain is caused isolated from the non strain-concentrated region 12 when substrate is pressed, consequently leading to enlarged electric signal output transmitted by sensors 4 in strain-concentrated region 11 compared to the non strain-concentrated region 12. At least one groove is provided on one side of the substrate 1 (front side or backside). In this embodiment, the strain-concentrated region 11 is comprised of a groove group 3 and the specific force-sensitive section of small thickness on the substrate 1. The front surface of strain-concentrated region is considered as a touch operation interface for users. Two or more sensors 4 are arranged in series connection on front side or backside of the sensor carrier layer 2, and at least one sensor is placed within the range of region 11, specifically in this embodiment referring to the position relevant to the groove group 3 wherein the preferred position to place sensors is at the central part of that. In this touch structure, groove group 3 formed on substrate 1 gathers the strain and alters the strain distribution while touch operation occurs to substrate 1, causing enlarged strain in relevant region of the sensor carrier layer 2 around groove group 3. Sensors 4 are formed between sensor carrier layers 2 or between the sensor carrier layer 2 and the back surface of substrate within or near strain-concentrated region to sense the strain and produce relevant signals which can be used to identify the disclosure touch point and calculate force value.

More specifically with reference to FIG. 4, two strain sensors 4 with strain resistance, including sensor 41 arranged on the corresponding area of groove group 3 and sensor 42 disposed thereof or located at other sites, form a bridge circuit in series connection where a certain value of voltage applies to both ends of sensor 41 as well as sensor 42, and a voltage detection end 43 is led out at the site between the first strain sensor 41 and the second strain sensor 42. In other circumstance, one end of the strain sensor 42 can be ground-linked (Vg), and the sensor 41 is connected with a high voltage (Vc), between which the output voltage (Vt) can be detected. In general, the area of groove group 3 experiences larger value of strain force when substrates is pressed, and deformation of sensor carrier layer 2 is induced below which the sensor 41 is stretched, which contributes to an increased resistance of sensor 41 and a reduced value of resistance of sensor 42 with a reduced voltage value of Vt as a consequence. In the embodiment of the invention, it is only required to ensure that one strain sensor 4 is arranged right below the groove group 3 to sense the deformation generated by touch, the other strain sensor 4 may not be arranged at the relevant position of the groove group 3, and change of the detection voltage Vt can be detected as long as the strain sensor 4 facing the right of the groove group 3 deforms. Specifically, the touch region and the size of the touch area can be calculated according to the Vt variation of the relevant detected position to realize the touch key function; a more accurate touch position and the size of the touch area are obtained through calculus of interpolation by further detecting variations of a series of relevant Vt around to achieve the touch screen function. Absolutely, the detection method adopting bridge circuit is a preferred method of the present invention where other circuit structure and analysis algorithm can be arranged to obtain the touch position and force as well.

1. Additional explanations: strain sensors are not restricted to strain resistance, also can be chosen from capacitance, inductance and other form of strain sensors which can change along with the strain vibration. The explanation is added to better understand the embodiment.

2. Additional explanations: detecting circuits are not restricted to single-bridge circuit consisted of two circuits in series connection. Functions can also be accomplished by a single sensor for electric current measurement or multi-bridge circuit capable of detecting variation of strain which is comprised of several single circuits.

3. Additional explanations: the possible substrate types are described with reference to FIG. 2, FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 8 and so on.

The embodiment of the present invention has provides some advantages compared to current techniques which are described as below.

1. Groove group is arranged on the surface of substrate which gathers strain force and leads to enlarged deformation when pressed. And it induces larger strain of sensor carrier layer and the strain can be detected by the sensor which is installed against groove group. Hence, the detected strain is not determined by the thickness of the whole substrate, but close relevance to the thickness of groove group. So the present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus which can be used in thicker substrate, and cuts down the cost, eliminate the limitation of substrate selection, makes the touch more sensitive.

2. The present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus capable of accepting various touching mode without restricted to finger touch, also including stylus touch, conductor touch or a gloved finger touch etc., and the precision cannot be influenced by interference of dielectric media.

3. The present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus wherein substrate is only required to have elastic deformation performance and can be produced by various types of elastic materials, including metal, glass or plastics, or is made of rigid materials with extremely high elasticity modulus. The substrate is flexible in material selection and wide in application range;

4. The present invention provides a method of force detecting which has expanded its application not only in force-sensitive touch screens and touch buttons, but also in products used for weighing and force measurement through calibration.

5. The present invention provides a force sensing structure and a touch-control apparatus wherein grooves are formed in the back surface of the substrate 1 and the front surface of the substrate is a complete interface without slots and seams, so the substrate is suitable for dust-free environment with higher requirements of security, dust control and so on.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the groove group 3 can be formed in the back surface of the substrate 1, and the front face of the substrate 1 is a flat surface without slots, and therefore the substrate is suitable for the dust-free environments with high requirements for security reasons and the like and absolutely, the groove group 3 can further be arranged on the front surface of the substrate 1.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the number and shape of the groove 3 is not required to be strictly limited, so that it can be spread over the entire surface area of substrate 1 to avoid a concentrated distribution in a certain small region. There is a plurality of regular or other irregular shapes adopted for groove group 3 including a circular shape, an oval shape, a ring shape, a cross shape, a radiation shape, a square shape, a sector shape or a polygonal shape and so on, and for multi-composition of groove group 3, it is allowed to be in the same shape or be combination of different appearance, and several specific embodiments will be demonstrated as followings.

In the first embodiment with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, the groove group 3 includes a central groove 31 located at the inner portion of the substrate 1 and an edge groove adjacent to the edge portion thereof. The central groove 31 is a cross-shape groove, while the edge groove 32 is a ring-shape groove, and they are formed in a mutually interconnected way. One strain sensor 4 is arranged in the region facing the right of the central groove 31, another strain sensor 4 is arranged in the region facing the right of the edge groove 32, and two sensors form a bridge circuit.

In the second embodiment with reference to FIG. 5, the central groove 31 is a cross-shaped groove or an X-shaped groove, while the edge groove 32 is a square-shaped groove, and they are formed in a mutually interconnected way, which can be used to the situation that the touch keys are dense. In another embodiment, the edge groove 32 can further be a polygon-shaped slot.

In the third embodiment with reference to FIG. 6, the central slot 31 is a radiation-shaped groove or is in the shape of the Chinese character ‘mi’, while the edge groove 32 is a circular groove, and they are formed in a mutually interconnected way. Specifically, the ray number of the radiation-shaped grooves can be one, two or more.

In the forth embodiment with reference to FIG. 7, the central groove 31 is in a circular shape, while the edge groove 32 is a ring-shaped groove.

In the fifth embodiment with reference to FIG. 8, the groove group 3 is a grid-shaped groove of the array structure, while the strain sensor 4 (No demonstration in Figures) is distributed in the area adjacent to each gridding units 33. The strain value at each groove is detected through multiple-point control can be achieved. This structure is more suitable for the touch screen products of larger size and with more touch buttons.

In the sixth embodiment with reference to FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, the groove group 3 includes an inner groove 34 and an outer ring groove 35 which is getting close to the edge of the substrate 1, one strain sensor 4 is arranged in the region facing the right of the inner groove 34 and the outer-ring groove 35 provided with another strain sensor 4. Also the area without grooves is able to install the strain sensor 4 and two strain sensors 4 form a bridge circuit. More specifically, the inner-ring groove 34 and the outer-ring groove 35 can be a circular groove or a square groove etc. The structure is also more suitable for the touch screen products of larger size and with more touch buttons and multiple-point control can be achieved.

In embodiment of the present invention, the substrate 1 is made of plastic, metal, glass, and the like with elastic deformation, or is made of rigid materials with high resilient modulus or adopting other materials which can be elastically deformed or have sensitive reactions to force and stress to achieve the function of force sensing. In this embodiment, the substrate 1 is integrally formed including the strain-concentrated area 11 and the non strain-concentrated area 12. The substrate 1 can further be made of transparent materials or only the non-slotted part is made transparent, so that the light can go through it. The transparent part can be use for light indication and/or LCD display area, which can further enrich the applications and functionality of the present invention.

In another embodiment of present invention provided with a force sensing apparatus with reference to FIG. 11, the strain sensor 4 is arrange directly in the strain-concentrated area 11 and the structure can be achieved without the sensor carrier layer 2.

The embodiment of present invention provides a force sensing device mainly applied into touch buttons and touch screens. Besides the structure of a single touch cell of touch button or touch screen according to the embodiments described above, the present invention also provides a touch device which includes a touch button or touch screen or both at the same time, wherein the touch button adopts the same force sensing structure, while the touch screen includes a plurality of such force detection structures distributed in array arrangement, and several groups of strain sensors can also be imposed in the same force sensing structure of which touch function is realized by interpolation calculation. This touch device is also within the protection scope of present invention.

The foregoing descriptions of the embodiments and their accompanying drawings of the invention are intended to illustrate and not to limit this invention. Various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be limited only by the appended claims. 

1: A force sensing structure comprises a substrate; and force sensors, that are provided exactly on or adjoining to the strain-concentrated region, wherein the substrate includes strain-concentrated region and non-strain-concentrated region, and the thickness of the substrate at the position of the strain-concentration region is smaller than that of the non-strain-concentration region. 2: The force sensing structure according to claim 1, wherein the substrate can be integrated formed and made of any one of common-used materials, such as plastic, metal, wood and glass. 3: The force sensing structure according to claim 1, wherein the substrate is made of elastic or rigid material. 4: The force sensing structure according to claim 2, wherein the strain-concentrated portion includes at least one groove formed by deformation from the backside of the substrate and the strain-concentrated area of small thickness on the substrate located at the position corresponding to the groove. 5: The force sensing structure according to claim 4, wherein the groove group is formed by the multiple grooves at the inner portion and the edge portion of the strain-concentrated district, the groove group comprises a central groove that is located in the inner portion of the strain-concentration region and an edge groove that is located in the edge portion of the strain-concentration region, and the central groove is in a cross shape, an X shape, a circular shape, a ring shape, a radiation shape, or the shape of the Chinese character ‘mi’ connecting with or isolated from the edge groove of which shape can be chosen from fan, ring, circle, oval or polygon. 6: The force sensing structure according to claim 5, wherein the groove group comprises multiple grooves that are arranged uniformly or non-uniformly in a grid-shape distribution. 7: The force sensing structure according to claim 6, wherein two or more sensors are series-connected foamed within or adjacent to the strain-concentrated region, including at least one sensor is located at the central position of the strain-concentrated region which constitutes a bridge circuit with other sensors by means of series connection. 8: The force sensing structure according to claim 1, wherein the strain-concentrated area only comprises one sensor located exactly at the central position thereof. 9: The force sensing structure according to claim 1, wherein the sensors can be variable resistors, capacitors, electric-inductance strain sensors, stress sensors or polymer strain sensors. 10: The force sensing structure according to claim 1, wherein the force sensing structure further comprises sensor carrier layer that is attached closely to the backside surface of the substrate, and sensors are imposed between sensor carrier layer and the substrate, between sensor carrier layers or under the lower surface of sensor carrier layer within or adjacent to the range of strain-concentrated region at backside of the substrate. 11: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 1; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 1. 12: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 2; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 2. 13: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 3; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 3. 14: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 4; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 4. 15: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 5; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 5. 16: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 6; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 6. 17: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 7; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 7. 18: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 8; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 8. 19: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 9; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 9. 20: A touch-control apparatus includes one or more touch button and/or one or more touch screen, wherein each touch button includes the force sensing structure according to claim 10; and/or the touch screen includes at least one such force sensing structure described in claim
 10. 